


Work To Do

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen, Off-screen death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-24 20:50:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17711345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "The guardians have become more than friends now, ever since Jack Frost joined them they became a family, their bonds being stronger than ever, each guardian feeling the same thing.But then Pitch killed Jack Frost.I was thinking of a fic where Pitch doesnt just wound him, he kills him while in the middle of battle; no reviving, Jack just dies, and how the Guardians try to cope losing a member of their family.Bonus points if the attack that killed Jack was meant to kill another Guardian (extra bonus points if the guardian was North or Bunny)Extra Bonus points if they go after Pitch.Im sorry this is sad"No one thought that Jack could die. Pitch expects vengeance, he gets something else (which isn’t good either).





	Work To Do

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr 1/22/2014.

The moment ought to be tense: North and Tooth holding their raised swords toward him, Bunny flexing his hands so that his claws show, his blunt boomerangs resting on his back—they won’t serve for what he wants to do now—and Sandy, floating silently beside them, no symbols above his head, no dreamsand weapons in his hands: hands that will be enough; hands that will be too much. Well. The moment ought to be tense, and Pitch ought to be bringing a nightmaresand scythe up from the shadows, maybe diving into those shadows to reappear behind the Guardians.   
  
He’s doing neither of these things, and the moment isn’t tense. Pitch looks across the space (such a  _little_  space!) that separates him from the others, forcing himself to look each of them in the eyes. The hate is there, as it should be, but, oh, it is a cold hate now, not the explosive heat as it had ever been before. There’s an irony there. Pitch half wants to point it out, with a crooked grin and a scornful laugh, but the heavy chill in his bones stops him. There’s an irony in that, too.  
  
He looks from Guardian to Guardian once more, stretching out this moment, though he knows now it’s not likely to snap or pull them all together. More probably, it will simply crumble.  
  
It’s hard to even see the Guardians now, and at first Pitch can’t quite figure out why. When he does look at them, they seem the same as they always have, the light of the moon shining down on them like it does on everything else—and then he realizes that’s the problem. Their colors are of the same quality as those of the background now, even—even Sandy.  
  
He shouldn’t be surprised. Hadn’t he noticed how the nightmaresand no longer glittered with grains of violet and blue? Hadn’t he looked down at his hands and seen that they had not truly been gray before, but now they were?  
  
“Well, are you going to do it or not?” He wanted to sound mocking. He only manages exhaustion.  
  
North drives one of his swords into the ground with an oddly muffled clang. “And what would happen after? What good—”  
  
“What  _good_!?” Bunny cries. “We have to! We can’t let Pitch go unpunished! Not for this! Not for” his voice drops to a whisper, “Jack.” He turns sharply to Pitch, opening his mouth to speak again, but closes it without saying anything more.  
  
Pitch thinks of several things he could say. That maybe if Bunny had looked less like he needed protecting, Jack wouldn’t have gotten in the way while trying to protect him. That maybe they should have explained to Jack what they could do, and asked Jack what he could do. That they should have been clearer regarding cycles, eternity, and what that meant to all of them.  
  
That he hadn’t known the boy could die.  
  
That he hadn’t known the boy could die, and not come back.  
  
He says, “So, are you?”  
  
“Wouldn’t be exactly equal, would it?” Tooth says. “You won’t stay dead.”  
  
“You won’t know for sure unless you try.”  
  
“This is no good,” North says, sheathing his other sword. “This is not battle. This is not vengeance either. This is…impossible.”  
  
“But you have to do  _something_ ,” Pitch says.  
  
“We will remember what you did.” Tooth sheathes her swords as well. “And we will never, never forget.”  
  
“Bunny?” Pitch whispers.  
  
He looks away, “They’re right. It wouldn’t do me any good to tear you apart and,” he turns back to Pitch, “I kind of think I don’t want to get close enough to do that, anyway.”  
  
“Sandy?” Pitch mouths, no sound escaping from his mouth.  
  
 _This isn’t a game, Pitch,_  he signs. (Hadn’t it been? Hadn’t it ALWAYS been?)  
  
 _Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have important work to do._  
  
At that, without any further fuss, the Guardians leave. There’s no jingling sleigh, no hum of wings, no flowers sprouting from the pavement, no dreamsand airship. They’re just gone from Pitch, with no show, no spectacle.  
  
Well. He can do that too.  
  
There are still nightmares in his lair, but they don’t move unless he’s looking at them. Which he does, of course, patting their rough, matte-black backs. He thinks he’d be able to send them out with no interference now. After all, everybody got a nightmare now and then. And Guardian business in itself brooked no rest.  
  
He doesn’t send any nightmares. He closes his eyes so that they won’t move, and he doesn’t do anything.  
  
He wonders if he could do nothing forever.  
  
A few days later, without any surprise, he realizes that he’s going to try.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> emeraldembers reblogged this from gretchensinister and added: You broke me, just fyi. I cried. This hit home so much harder than it should have for reasons I didn’t expect and I am in awe of your writing.
> 
> *hugs*
> 
> (seriously though, the loss of otherness in this, the loss of that sense of magic even with the other Guardians present, it just slew me)


End file.
